KIRKUS REVIEW

Alpha males and Omega women clash in
this erotic fantasy novel about the power dynamics of sex and gender.

It’s a great risk for Omega woman Claireto enter Thólos Citadel, where brutish
Alpha males live, but she has no choice. Disguised and ostensibly aided by blue
pills that she’s been taking that suppress her “heat,” she seeks a man named
“the Shepherd,” who may be able to help her; the few Omega womenleft are starving, and Claire is on a
mission to save them. Shepherd rescues her from a dangerous situation, but he’s
also quick to take advantage of her sexually, as she’s currently fertile, or “broadcasting
a heat cycle.” He then reveals that he wants to enslave the Omega women, not
help them. Claire is trapped for weeks before she can escape and get the help
of Corday, a Beta male who has more free will than other men. It turns out that
something more menacing is planned for the Omegas and that the blue pills that Claire
has been taking are not at all what they seem. As tensions rise between the
Omegas and the Alphas, more is revealed about Claire’s history. Intense
dialogue keeps the story moving, although it’s sometimes muddled by the extensive
jargon (“pair-bonded,” “Da’rin markings,” “castoffs”) that populates the novel.
There’s no shortage of drama as alliances form and surprising betrayals are
revealed. The dynamic between the men and women in this dystopia is a
disturbing allegory, and the erotic scenes between Claire and the Shepherd start
as sensual and become violent. However, the secondary characters, including the
kind Corday and the spirited Nona, one of the Omega women, are ultimately more
intriguing than Shepherd and Claire’s tortured relationship. There are apparent
attempts to make Shepherd into a more sympathetic character, but readers will
likely find it hard to see him as anything more than the brute he is.

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